The Evolution of Apple Ads | Webdesigner Depot

15 Sep
The Evolution of Apple Ads
Apple, Branding, Marketing
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Apple first started advertising its products in the late 1970s.
The 80s showed a wide variety of ads, some of which served to convince consumers that they should purchase a computer, and specifically an Apple.
These ads were text-heavy and light on images, as were many computer and technology ads from that era.
Apple ads really came into their heyday during the 1990s, with the “Think Different” campaign, which became very popular as they featured a number of famous people.
Here’s a stunning compilation of some of Apple’s most notable advertisements from the 70s until the present day, including a few videos ads.
With the launch of the iMac in the late 90s, Apple ads became much more artistic and, for the most part, focused much more on showcasing the product and used very little text compared with earlier ads.
It’s also worth noting how the ads changed as the hardware changed. For more on the evolution of Apple’s hardware, see The Evolution of Apple Design between 1977-2008 which takes a look at the changes from a hardware perspective.
Most recently, Apple has focused on television advertising, most notably with its Mac vs. PC ads. The company had done TV ads prior to that (starting with the ad based on George Orwell’s “1984″ during the 1984 Super Bowl), but mostly in conjunction with print campaigns.
Current Apple ads seem to follow two veins: advertisements for their computers generally have a white background and put the emphasis on the product being advertised; ads for the iPod line generally have bright backgrounds with silhouetted figures. Most of Apple’s current advertising seems to be on TV these days. You can watch most of the recent ads on the Apple website.
1970s

1980s

1990s

2000-Present

Video Ads

Compiled exclusively for WDD by Cameron Chapman.
How has Apple’s advertisement changed over the years? What are the most significant changes? Please share your opinion with us.

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95 Comments »

#1
TheGameJC
September 15th, 2009 at 9:15 am
fantastic compilation man

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#2
Mllx
September 15th, 2009 at 9:23 am
Awesome post
First btw

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#3
Mars
September 15th, 2009 at 9:55 am
wow, how’d you collect all those vintage ads, amazing eh!

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#4
Luke Jones
September 15th, 2009 at 10:21 am
http://netdna.webdesignerdepot.com/uploads/apple_ads/1979studenthours.jpg
That looks too much like Alan Partridge (Steve Coogan)

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#5
DaveK
September 15th, 2009 at 10:43 am
love this article, I like the way you can see the macs slowly evolving into what we use today, I usually remember the early macs with nostalgia, and drool over the latest, but tend to forget all the ones in between.

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#6
Kees
September 15th, 2009 at 10:48 am
What’s an Apple man?

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#7
wien
September 15th, 2009 at 10:56 am
nice story

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#8
Pat
September 15th, 2009 at 11:09 am
Nice post. And interessting to see Apple before TBWA and after.

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#9
AleksGrynis
September 15th, 2009 at 11:09 am
Thats what I am talking about Great job!

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#10
zeemiDesign
September 15th, 2009 at 11:43 am
Great Post,
especially impressive that you found all those really old ads.

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#11
Martyn
September 15th, 2009 at 11:55 am
Awesome post! The newest adverts look slightly better than the old ones

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#12
Essex Website Designer
September 15th, 2009 at 12:38 pm
Awesome trip down memory lane

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#13
Visa
September 15th, 2009 at 1:05 pm
You missed a classic, the Ellen Feiss commercial in the “Switch” series: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_GxC4kKD9qA

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#14
Jeff
September 15th, 2009 at 1:54 pm
It’s so cool! Some of these ads are priceless.

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#15
John (Human3rror)
September 15th, 2009 at 1:56 pm
This is killer! thanks so much.

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#16
Jobber
September 15th, 2009 at 2:13 pm
Thx. Great to see how fast technology moved forward. Impressive.

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#17
The Communicator
September 15th, 2009 at 4:12 pm
Part of my job responsibilities is to read recent and relevant online articles. I spent way too much time with this one, and I’m not finished. Might be the only one I read today. Got to get back to work. But I’ll be back! Thanks for this one!

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#18
Chad Engle
September 15th, 2009 at 4:30 pm
Awesome job grabbing a TON of ads. I think its funny the farther down you get the less and less texts the ads have and the more minimal they have become. Great look at deeps roots in tech & design history.

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#19
Iowa personal injury
September 15th, 2009 at 4:36 pm
That’s an impressive compilation. It’s really interesting to see how these ads have changed so much.

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#20
Ross
September 15th, 2009 at 4:59 pm
Amazing!
Where have you found all these ads?

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#21
Sol
September 15th, 2009 at 5:00 pm
Great compilation!
Thx!

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#22
snikus
September 15th, 2009 at 5:30 pm
MEGA COOL POST…. +5

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#23
Sander
September 15th, 2009 at 5:50 pm
I had an Apple //c when I was (much) younger… I’m kind of sad that I don’t have it anymore after seeing these ads…

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#24
Wayne Hodkinson
September 15th, 2009 at 6:02 pm
Cool as cool can be!

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#25
dave
September 15th, 2009 at 6:17 pm
very nice post =)

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#26
Logo Bliss
September 15th, 2009 at 6:25 pm
that is an absolute epic list, (picks jaw of floor)…i think the apple ads a pretty creative..

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#27
Adam
September 15th, 2009 at 6:29 pm
Nice post of the evolution very interesting.

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#28
Rafael Roque
September 15th, 2009 at 6:46 pm
Nice!!!

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#29
Abdurrahman Gemei
September 15th, 2009 at 7:21 pm
Great stuff! I’m surprised how you actually compiled all of the ads and organized them. It must have taken forever. What a ride for Apple though.

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#30
carlos
September 15th, 2009 at 8:33 pm
Hello, I think this is a great article for ad designers and other people in tha advertising busyness, but did you have to post it all in 1 super extra large page? what about posting just a part of the entire article and a link to rest of it so people who is really interested can read it.
I was reading this in google reader and it took about 50 seconds to load all those pictures that I didn’t want to see even.
Regards

1 Reply
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Walter
September 15th, 2009 at 8:54 pm
Most people prefer to have all images on one page. I’m aware that it takes a while to load.

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#31
Alex Keher
September 15th, 2009 at 9:06 pm
You have to admit that the Ads of Adam is very very gay!

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#32
Walter
September 15th, 2009 at 9:42 pm
The image sources can be seen by clicking on the images.

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#33
Tatiana
September 15th, 2009 at 9:56 pm
That was great! Great job finding the vintage print ads!

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#34
bradyo
September 15th, 2009 at 10:05 pm
don’t know how you got all the ads but it awesome to see the evolution of the ads

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#35
TrompoDesign
September 15th, 2009 at 10:16 pm
muy buen post gran compendio simplemente genial!!!!!!

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#36
Josef Richter
September 16th, 2009 at 12:20 am
wow, what a comprehensive compilation! thanks

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#37
nishad
September 16th, 2009 at 1:02 am
g8 collection

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#38
Sean Rasmussen
September 16th, 2009 at 1:26 am
That takes me back to some good ‘old’ memories. It’s almost scary. We now live in the future! Good old Apple.

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#39
Dufaukz
September 16th, 2009 at 4:45 am
Nice designs!

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#40
Gombáu
September 16th, 2009 at 7:51 am
Unbelievable!!!!!

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#41
Bryan Broussard
September 16th, 2009 at 8:20 am
Great post!!!

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#42
Anh girl xinh
September 16th, 2009 at 9:03 am
Great post, I love Apple!!!

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#43
BebopDesigner
September 16th, 2009 at 9:30 am
I’m blown away man! I can’t believe you found all that stuff… what a brilliant post! I’m a Mac lover… what can I say. Thanks for posting.

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#44
Mark Rosser
September 16th, 2009 at 9:43 am
Excellent post, thank you. Remember quite a few of those from the 80’s & 90’s.

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#45
WallMountedHDD4Linux
September 16th, 2009 at 10:01 am
So basically they went from very geeky, techy, respectable ads that were gutsy, only somewhat pretentious….to ads reliant on colors, pop culture, being the epitome of trendy and hip, and pretentious to hell and back?
Yeah. I see no trend of improvement.

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#46
aledesign.it
September 16th, 2009 at 12:11 pm
Fantastic post and the video are amazing!

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#47
Ashely Adams : Sticker Printing
September 16th, 2009 at 1:08 pm
Have always been a fan of Apple. It’s a company I have a lot of respect for. Have always loved the happy marriage of technology and aesthetics. The Windows vs. Mac ads were hilarious. Couldn’t agree more.

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#48
Jayne
September 16th, 2009 at 4:25 pm
Wow these are great, I especially love the 70’s Apple II!

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#49
Andrew Thompson
September 16th, 2009 at 11:39 pm
Great stuff, but you can tell the intro was written by a designer: “Apple HAVE … with THEIR..”. Apple IS a company and IS therefore singular. The copywriters in the seventies knew that (read the ads), but that was before type became a design element and grammar an optional extra.
Love the compilation, though. Thanks for compiling and publishing.

1 Reply
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Walter
September 17th, 2009 at 12:11 am
Love the feedback and thanks for the positive comments. I’ve reviewed the text and I think I’ve corrected it all.
Thanks again for bringing this to my attention.

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#50
stevebert
September 16th, 2009 at 11:54 pm
I think you can really see the break between the MessagePad 2000 ad and the first Bondi iMac ad. Steve Jobs takes over here and his minimalist aesthetic is quite obviously behind the change.

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#51
RoaldA
September 17th, 2009 at 12:38 am
Haha, so funny!

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#52
Callum Chapman
September 17th, 2009 at 10:57 am
Excellent round-up, thanks for sharing!

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#53
Vitezslav Valka
September 17th, 2009 at 11:05 am
Gorgeous! Thank you for getting that together

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#54
Luis Lopez
September 17th, 2009 at 11:25 am
I think this is amazing, that’s the proof why everyone loves and dream having an apple product.
The best are the mac vs pc

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#55
zamplr
September 17th, 2009 at 12:52 pm
Wow, I love Apple II era.

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#56
Michael Rockett
September 17th, 2009 at 2:39 pm
Very nice – it’s actually the first time ive seen the old apples =) nice compilation!

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#57
Alejandro
September 17th, 2009 at 6:33 pm
Ho ho, great compilation.

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#58
Andrea
September 17th, 2009 at 7:01 pm
It’s nice to see the evolution of one company/brand. Great post! I also find it interesting that in advertising, less really is more (notice how the amount of copy dramatically decreased over the years) as we are inundated with so much advertising media these days.

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#59
BORABORA
September 17th, 2009 at 10:57 pm
Great collection! Thanks for putting up all this together!
Best wishes
BORABORA

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#60
Ralf Zmölnig
September 18th, 2009 at 12:09 am
Only one word: Yeah!

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#61
tiffany and co
September 18th, 2009 at 11:08 am
Thanks for your information, i have read it, very good！

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#62
dj münchen
September 18th, 2009 at 12:59 pm
apple is great !

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#63
Liberal Arts
September 18th, 2009 at 9:23 pm
The designs are more impressive now, but how sad that there is less attempt to teach and inform than in the past. Of course, the primary object of the teaching and informing was to sell, but at least there was some valid data and intelligence in the wordier advertisements of the past.

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#64
joe
September 18th, 2009 at 10:39 pm
Awwww those were the days, I remember it was like yesterday when my parents bought me, my first Mac Classic with NEC laser printer (300dpi) in the 80s with Pagemaker from Computerland! Thanks for sharing!

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#65
cypherbox
September 19th, 2009 at 6:46 am
Apple is awesome cool from design to functionality and of course the quality. I just remember how my iPod shuffle misplaced in a mug, accidentally my brother put a hot water in it for a coffee break. Guess what? It’s still working after that ’til now.hehehe..

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#66
ILLUMINZ
September 19th, 2009 at 9:45 am
Great compilation!
Apple has always created hype because they have a “think different” marketing agency.
@zeemiDesign you always work in underpants??

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#67
Code.My
September 19th, 2009 at 3:24 pm
Wow, Great Collection and Apple old ads look really bad

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#68
dicklacara
September 19th, 2009 at 6:14 pm
You missed the best Apple ad of all time!
http://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/text/Apple/Apple.II.1977.102637933.pdf

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#69
patrickv
September 19th, 2009 at 8:54 pm
NIce, apple’s video ad really sucked though !! but their picture ads is really cool

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#70
W. Anderson
September 20th, 2009 at 6:46 am
As owner of an iMAC running Snow Leopard OS (still using VM Ware Fusion so I can run my Microsoft suff– I still dream of a universal operating sytem with no need to use virtual systems. I use genealogy software (Family Tree maker 2009 by choice) and long to se a version for MAC that runs the same features easy to use as FTM9 (no genealogy proram for MAC matches it for use and efficiency). So MR Apple, take the next step to a fully integrated universal system and enlarge the cosmos for us all.

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#71
شات
September 20th, 2009 at 2:09 pm
Wow these are great,
thanks

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#72
Banhawi
September 21st, 2009 at 10:10 am
Big apple fan

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#73
Anistock
September 21st, 2009 at 1:34 pm
the more I come back to this article, the more I am amazed by Apple, pity they lost thier way in the 90’s.

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#74
Lexia 3 Citroen Peugeot
September 21st, 2009 at 4:57 pm
Apple is the coolest company in the world. I like this company and Jobs.

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#75
Leandro Novaes - Brazil
September 22nd, 2009 at 8:02 pm
Congraturations! I’m a Apple Fan Boy!

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#76
Redstage Magento
September 23rd, 2009 at 1:35 am
Some of these ads are just amazing. I can remember a couple of the old ones. It just shows how technology and the ways of advertisement have evolved.

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#77
Allison K (FILM 240)
September 23rd, 2009 at 4:14 am
I really love seeing the whole evolution of the Apple ads. A lot has definitely changed.
It’s very interesting to see how the older Apple ads were more anecdotal advertisements of the ‘everyday people,’ as well as using famous names like Ford and Thomas Edison. Large, bold, and short phrases to catch audience’s attention were also familiar patterns throughout. And looking at the Apple advertisements of the 21st century, everything is still somewhat colourful (especially those ipod dancing ads), yet minimalistic and fewer captioning. With Apple’s massive popularity these days, these ads have definitely come a long way to help boost its consumer audience.

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#78
Suelen Pessoa
September 24th, 2009 at 3:53 pm
Like Newton said: Oops, an Apple!
=)

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#79
juan carlos
September 24th, 2009 at 5:25 pm
Gran trabajo

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#80
Krag
September 24th, 2009 at 10:09 pm
The demise of AAPL has been greatly exaggerated, over the last 20 years.
Present capitalization rate will place them worth more than GE in 10 years.

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#81
Ricardo Mentzer
September 25th, 2009 at 12:20 am
Man, this is the best compilation !
congratulations
From Brazil!

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#82
Jose Duran III
September 26th, 2009 at 2:31 am
Thank’s for a great compilation of pure art-mac. I personally bought my first Mac II on l987 and it was my first computer. That was a turn point in my life. I never used an other type. It’s my way of life. I love just about everything about Macs. Even the adverts about it.
Running a iMac 20″, an i book 15″ and Iphone to work and entertainment my self.
saludos from Spain to all MacFans!

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#83
rainwebs
September 26th, 2009 at 5:30 am
Great compilation. Interesting development in products. Would we have the quality of the iPhone without the ideas of a Newton?

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#84
Bonna
September 29th, 2009 at 8:07 pm
The Emotional Design was the great view of marketing. While the others sell technology, Apple sells life style and entertainment, Awesome!

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#85
Ruysantana
September 30th, 2009 at 10:12 pm
Youmademyday
greatworkthankyou

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#86
Vittoria
October 4th, 2009 at 11:46 am
Great compilation, thanks.

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#87
J Broström
October 8th, 2009 at 11:13 am
Great compilation!

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#88
Print Advertising
October 9th, 2009 at 9:27 pm
Really interesting to see the evolution of the ads and the different concepts within each campaign. Apple has done a fantastic job of making you think with their print ads as well as conveying the potential benefits of their product.

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#89
Kate
October 13th, 2009 at 11:55 am
Brilliant collection – thanks for posting!

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#90
überRegenbogen
October 25th, 2009 at 1:14 am
The “1984 won’t be like 1984″ Mac ad was NOT Apple’s first TV ad. I distinctly remember the “What If” Apple II ad with Dick Cavett. I suspect there were others. There also was a Lisa ad with (then unknown) Kevin Costner (though i’m not sure if it was pre-Mac).

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#91
Alvaro Hernandorena
October 26th, 2009 at 9:29 pm
great work, awsome compilation!!!
some where very funny lol

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#92
Minocula
November 1st, 2009 at 10:07 pm
Great collection, specially Apple Crazies and Macintosh 1984 I very like! thx!
But the master of computer advertising is still steve balmer
check that out
http://wiki.anactivesite.ch/Videos/Broadcaster/IT#Old_Windows_Commercial
Kind regards

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#93
web tasarım
November 11th, 2009 at 12:34 pm
Great collection, specially Apple Crazies and Macintosh 1984 I very like! thx!

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#94
binE
November 16th, 2009 at 7:18 pm
Thx a lot for this post

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#95
Siq
November 21st, 2009 at 6:29 am
It’s interesting how the ads get less and less wordy over time to the point that there are almost no words at all.

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